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Having spent over 6 years in prison I have to say, that while I saw one or two conversions of Christians, I never saw the so called epidemic.

You must have been in a jail that is the exception. Funny thing is that a lot of inmates turn to Islam and the Muslims for protection. To me the prison Muslims are no different than the Bloods, Crips, or any other street gang.

You must have been in a jail that is the exception. Funny thing is that a lot of inmates turn to Islam and the Muslims for protection. To me the prison Muslims are no different than the Bloods, Crips, or any other street gang.

There are things in prison that can only be seen when looking at them through the inmate's point of view and things you "see" that are not really there.

Like the shakedowns which are a part of every prison documentary. They point out the hidey holes and supposedly super secret places that inmates hide stuff. That is such bullshit! Those are the OBVIOUS places to inmates. You may hide something there to set another inmate up, but never your own.

People think that "justice" is doled out on rapists and child molester in prison and nothing could be further from the truth. People think that inmates are going to be filled with a sense of justice and pound on these guys and that is another fallacy. I'll tell you why. It takes a long time, about a year and a half to get comfortable in prison. Takes that long to finally get a good job assignment (I got one right away but I had an angle other inmates would not try), a bottom bunk, contraband and such. You go to the hole for any reason, you lose all of that stuff. It is not worth it. The only child molester I ever saw get beatdown got beatdown for other reasons.

The same with gangs. Very few people get into gangs in prison who were not in gangs in the first place. Two kinds of people get into gangs in prison. Guys who were in gangs in the first place and those who have a connection and way to make money and need the gang infrastructure already in place to work it.

You stay out of the gangs in two ways. You stay in your cell and avoid the weight pile and common areas and walk around fearful, you kowtow and cower when in the presence of gang members and they would not want you. Or you get three or four other guys who will always watch your back as you theirs and will jump in when you get crossways with anyone. No matter if it is one on one or ten on one. Gangs are there to make money, losing soldiers in a scrap over some stupid dick measuring shit is not worth it.

The same with Muslims. The Muslims do not recruit anyone who was not already leaning that way in the first place. Those guys would have aligned themselves with racist groups like the Black Panthers or such.

There are things in prison that can only be seen when looking at them through the inmate's point of view and things you "see" that are not really there.

Like the shakedowns which are a part of every prison documentary. They point out the hidey holes and supposedly super secret places that inmates hide stuff. That is such bullshit! Those are the OBVIOUS places to inmates. You may hide something there to set another inmate up, but never your own.

People think that "justice" is doled out on rapists and child molester in prison and nothing could be further from the truth. People think that inmates are going to be filled with a sense of justice and pound on these guys and that is another fallacy. I'll tell you why. It takes a long time, about a year and a half to get comfortable in prison. Takes that long to finally get a good job assignment (I got one right away but I had an angle other inmates would not try), a bottom bunk, contraband and such. You go to the hole for any reason, you lose all of that stuff. It is not worth it. The only child molester I ever saw get beatdown got beatdown for other reasons.

The same with gangs. Very few people get into gangs in prison who were not in gangs in the first place. Two kinds of people get into gangs in prison. Guys who were in gangs in the first place and those who have a connection and way to make money and need the gang infrastructure already in place to work it.

You stay out of the gangs in two ways. You stay in your cell and avoid the weight pile and common areas and walk around fearful, you kowtow and cower when in the presence of gang members and they would not want you. Or you get three or four other guys who will always watch your back as you theirs and will jump in when you get crossways with anyone. No matter if it is one on one or ten on one. Gangs are there to make money, losing soldiers in a scrap over some stupid dick measuring shit is not worth it.

The same with Muslims. The Muslims do not recruit anyone who was not already leaning that way in the first place. Those guys would have aligned themselves with racist groups like the Black Panthers or such.

A lot of us probably watched "Scared Straight" in the late 70s or early 80s, and that's the impression we have of prison life. That and HBO's OZ.

I worked in the delinquency system from 1990-95. I never went into a state prison during that time, but visited some pretty hardcore youth at the W. J. Maxey training school, which was the state's prison for juvies at the time. It was different from adult prison in that there were more staff and more services available. Most of the kids at the total lockdown across the street from the main campus were going to end up in the adult system-that's where the murderers and rapists were housed. This was in the day that they were set loose at 21, no matter what their underlying charge was. That's not the case anymore, mainly because of one particularly notorious murder by a 14 year old. Plus, a lot of the programs have been privatized, and Maxey is no longer open.

Green Oaks, across the street, was pretty hardcore. The kids were given school classes, but most of the time, the staff were breaking up fights and filing adult charges against the instigators and the most violent of the violent. They also had a unit for developmentally delayed sex offenders-working that program was every woman's worst nightmare. I know of at least one who was gang-raped on a night when all her male coworkers called in sick.

A lot of us probably watched "Scared Straight" in the late 70s or early 80s, and that's the impression we have of prison life. That and HBO's OZ.

I worked in the delinquency system from 1990-95. I never went into a state prison during that time, but visited some pretty hardcore youth at the W. J. Maxey training school, which was the state's prison for juvies at the time. It was different from adult prison in that there were more staff and more services available. Most of the kids at the total lockdown across the street from the main campus were going to end up in the adult system-that's where the murderers and rapists were housed. This was in the day that they were set loose at 21, no matter what their underlying charge was. That's not the case anymore, mainly because of one particularly notorious murder by a 14 year old. Plus, a lot of the programs have been privatized, and Maxey is no longer open.

Green Oaks, across the street, was pretty hardcore. The kids were given school classes, but most of the time, the staff were breaking up fights and filing adult charges against the instigators and the most violent of the violent. They also had a unit for developmentally delayed sex offenders-working that program was every woman's worst nightmare. I know of at least one who was gang-raped on a night when all her male coworkers called in sick.

The same with Muslims. The Muslims do not recruit anyone who was not already leaning that way in the first place.

I've actually had a few tell me they joined for protection.

A lot of us probably watched "Scared Straight" in the late 70s or early 80s, and that's the impression we have of prison life.

If you think Scared Straight was fabricated then you are stark raving nuts. They were real inmates in a real prison. Rahway State Prison, now called East Jersey State Prison. I've been there. It's an old school prison like you see in the movies.

If you think Scared Straight was fabricated then you are stark raving nuts. They were real inmates in a real prison. Rahway State Prison, now called East Jersey State Prison. I've been there. It's an old school prison like you see in the movies.

I don't think Scared Straight was fabricated. It was filmed at a prison for the worst of inmates, though. Not all prisons are filled with the worst criminals.

When I was a kid, my dad would make deliveries to the minimum security facility in Ionia with us in the car. He also did volunteer work there, teaching the inmates to operate floor machines and the other stuff that he sold, so they could get a job when they got out. He told us "There's really not much difference between those guys and me, when I was young. If I hadn't enlisted in the Army right out of high school, I would have ended up in jail for something". The inmates there were mostly serving short sentences for petty drug and property offenses, and maybe the occasional bar fight, but were not dangerous, violent offenders. There are a lot of prison programs like that out there, so that DOC doesn't have to house the dangerous with the less-dangerous. Like anything, stuff still happens, but it reduces the risk.

When Dr. Kervorkian went to jail, they didn't put him in Jacktown (SE Michigan state penitentiary at Jackson). They put him somewhere where his medical needs could be met, where he couldn't constantly be interviewed by reporters, and where he was not at risk of assault by other inmates.